Not For The World
by linniestorm
Summary: New Years Eve 2000 in Sunnydale and L.A. Willow and Spike see in the New Year together, while in L.A the gang attempt to bring back an old friend, and Buffy and Angel finally come to an understanding.


**  
[ Not for the World ]**

TITLE: Not for the World  
AUTHOR: Lindsay Ince [chicago_heat@hotmail.com]  
DISCLAIMER: Joss and co. own BtVS and A:TS. I.D.T.I.L.S.T  
ARCHIVE: http://www.stas.net/blurred  
DISTRIBUTION: If you want it and let's face it, why? E-mail me.  
RATING: PG-13  
SPOILERS: Hints of BtVS: S4/5 and Angel S1/2.  
SUMMARY: New Years Eve 2000 in Sunnydale and L.A. Willow and Spike see in the New Year together, while in L.A the gang attempt to bring back an old friend, and Buffy and Angel finally come to an understanding.  
AUTHORS NOTES: In response to a challenge by Lisa for the site [You Got The Stones?][1]   
FEEDBACK: If you fancy commenting or watching my fall into insanity, just e-mail me.

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Spike lay back on the slab in his crypt and sighed. He was absolutely bored out of his brain, listening to crappy pop music on the small portable radio he had, many months ago sneaked into the crypt to while away the time between episodes of Passions. He had first struggled to find a rock station and had therefore tuned into the local Sunnydale radio station, whose staple music was a diet of Britney Spears and N'Sync. At fisrt he had bemoaned the lack of real music and had refused to listen, but in the end he relented and had got quite fond of the 'soppy ballads' and 'tinny dance music' they played. The one rock tape he possessed he used in an unusual fashion. He had begun the rather perverse habit of playing rock music extremely loudly late at night. It gave him the sense of still being a rebel, the fact that he was disturbing the sleep of the deceased. Plus there was the added cool factor. Vampires, of course, are only around the graveyard at night and therefore could only hear Spike's affection for rock, whereas if they had been around during the day they would have heard him cheerfully whistling along to Christina Aguilera's latest hit. That would be the icing on the cake, he thought, totally and utterly ruin my street cred, that would.

He looked at the portable alarm clock by the slab he called home. It was hours until sunset, when he could at least go outside and have a walk about. He turned the station over into irritation and turned it up loudly, which made him unable to hear the knock that sounded at the crypt door soon afterwards. Willow stood outside, in the freezing cold, wondering where the hell Spike was. Well, not where he was, what he was doing, as he couldn't very well be anywhere but the crypt, unless he had decided to try the fashionable, but unpopular 'pile of dust' look, that was enjoying a welcome return to Sunnydale since Buffy's arrival. She knocked again, very loudly. When the seconds passed and still no response from instead, she began to get worried. Or, at least, as worried as any of the Scooby Gang could be at the disappearance of Spike. She quietly, and gently, pushed open the door to the crypt and peered inside. The atmosphere was full of loud, mind-numbing music, of the pop variety, and not very good pop at that. She stepped inside, looking over at the slab at one end of the crypt, where she spotted Spike lying there, stke in hand, poising it against his chest, hand raised, ready to slam it into his body.

'No!' she screamed, and made a lunge towards him to stop him doing anything stupid. Spike looked over towards her in surprise, his attention for a moment diverted to her cry.

She ran to him and snatched the stake out of his hand, hugging it to her chest to prevent him retrieving it from her.

'Hey, you stupid bint, what the hell do you think you are doing?' he shouted.

'Trying to stop you doing something idiotic,' she panted, out of breath from dashing acorss the crypt.

'It's not idiotic,' Spike said, as he lay back down on the slab, as though they had been having a normal conversation, 'It 's simply common sense. I'm fed up of having this bloody chip, and I'm not much a vampire with it in, so I may as well save the slayer some trouble and stake myself, let her go after the bigger fish.'

'That's nonsense,' Willow said immediately. 'Buffy would rather stake you than any other vampire in Sunnydale.'

'Really?' he asked eagerly, brightening up.

'Of course, she's said it, many times.'

'That's sweet,' Spike said happily. 

'Why are you so depressed?' Willow asked. 'It's the New Year. You should be celebrating.'

'Celebrating what?' He began to look down again. 'I'm an impotent outcast vampire. My girlfriend of one hundred years left me for a fungus demon because she thought I was pathetic, and did I mention I can't *bite* anything. Which is the whole point of being a vampire.'

Willow smiled gently, 'You're missing Drusilla?'

'Don't talk about her!' he yelled, smashing his fist into the wall of the crypt. He winced, then sank down heavily on the slab. 'New Year's was the best holiday. All those drunken humans. You know, you can torture drunk people far longer than sober ones, its the numbing of the nerves you see. We'd go to a party and take it over and drink all night. It was fabulous. Now I couldn't do it even if I tried.'

Willow walked over to him and gently rubbed his shoulder. 'It's hard ebing alone at the holidays. I know. I've been there. It'll get better, just give it time.'

'Not a problem pet, I'm in it for the duration, remember?'

'Oh, look you've got to take your mind off it.' willow began to think of silly things to get him smiling. 'Well, do you want gum?' she said, offering him a stick. 

'No,' he answered, downcast.

'Want to go for slurpees?' she tried again.

'Its the middle of the day, and dust and slurpees don't mix.'

'Oh, sorry. Look, there must be something I can do to make you feel better.' Willow pleaded.

'There is,' Spike said slowly.

'Well, tell me,' she replied.

'Spend New Year's Eve with me?' he begged.

Willow's eyes opened wide at the proposal tantamount to a date and eyed the vampire suspiciously for an ulterior motive. There didn't seem to be one, and Willow's sympathies had been roused by the depression Spike was currently in. Sighing heavily, she nodded her head, and saw the first smile to cross his lips all week.

* * * * *

Cordelia watched with interest and amusement as Angel rather clumsily made the coffee. It was rare he offered to do it, as he didn't drink the stuff much himself, but all that morning he had been more than usually helpful to her, in fact he was acting as though she was ill and had to rest. Which was odd, she considered, as the last time she had been ill he hadn't done any of the things he was doing for her now. Wesley too was acting very oddly. For a few hours she put up with it, but eventually it got irritating. It wasn't her birthday, and there wasn't any reason for a surprise party, which left the conclusion that all the secrecy wasn't anything to do with her, and immediately excited her curiosity. She got up from behind her desk and walked into the office where Angel and Wesley were now feverishly looked over piles and piles of manuscript.

'Okay, see no evil and speak no evil,' she said, 'I want to know what's going on.'

'What?' Wesley said, trying to look innocent, and failing miserably.

'I want to know what's going on.' Cordelia repeated slowly. 'You guys have gone all CIA on me and I want to know why.'

'It's nothing Cordelia, go back to work,' Angel interjected.

'Hey, when you did you have a personality transplant and become Joseph Stalin? What is it, is it dangerous? Is that why you won't tell me?' she said worriedly.

Angel sighed, and straightening up, walked towards her. 

'Its a spell. Giles and Willow are coming to perform it. they found it in a book. We didn't want to get your hopes up.'

Wesley joined him, 'Its an ancient ritual that magical tribal villages used. They performed the ritual to 'bring back old blood', in essence, to raise a warrior to fight for them again.'

Cordelia took in a deep breath, 'Doyle?'

Angel smiled. 'We're going to try it. Its one of those special things that can only be performed on the cusp of the millennium. Thats why we didn't want to get your hopes up. There is such a slim chance really, we didn't want to risk upsetting you.'

'But the millennium? It was last year, we missed it!'

'Not the true millenium,' Wesley said. 'Last year was all government hype. the year two thousand and all that. this is the year the millennium really begins.'

'Oh,' Cordelia said quietly. 'When are they coming?'

'Later today,' Angel answered. 'It has to be performed at sunset, so we're just doing a little preparatory work.'

'Well, I guess someone had better go back to our day job,' Cordelia replied, trying to keep the facade of her usual behaviour. 'Time is money!'

As she left Wesley turned to Angel. 'She seems to be taking it awfully well.'

'I think there's more going on under there than we truly realise,' he replied.

* * * * *

Buffy lay her head down on the desk and sighed. She was incredibly bored. Giles had been sorting through the books she had helped him to unpack for a few hours but had asked her to stay to help him catalogue them. Except most of the time Giles would read out a book's information and then keep reading, turning the pages and uttering 'ohs' and 'ahs' when he found some titbit of information that he didn't know before. He was doing it at that moment, engrossed in some title on ancient rituals practiced by some tribe deep in the Andies or Indies or wherever it was, and Buffy was bored. After she had been lying on the desk for some time and had sighed loudly enough to wake the dead in order to catch Giles' attention she gave up.

'Giles, serious boredom going on here, feel my pain?'

'Oh, Buffy!' Giles said, as though she'd snuck up behind him and said 'boo'. 'I had no idea you were still here.'

'Yes, well no offence, but I'd rather I wasn't, can I go now?'

'Um, well I suppose.' Giles surveyed the scenes of neatly stacked piles of books lying all over his floor. 'I'd much rather we got these done, but if you really must go....'

'Hey, I said I'd help, its not my fault you decided to go all Albert Einstein on me and read eveything before we'd catalogued it.'

Giles sighed. 'Yes, I know I'm sorry. Its just exciting that's all. It's been so long since I got a new consignment of books I'd forgotten the excitement. Finding ones you've been wanting to read for months, years even, and then there are the ones that you have never heard of and look so interesting. And then theres...oh dear.'

Buffy's head snapped around quickly, seeing as whenever Giles said 'oh dear' it almost always meant something awful was going to happen. 'What. What is it? Giles, tell me!'

He put up a hand to stop her pleas as his eyes skimmed the rest of the page he was looking at. 

'I've found something rather interesting, and...well, er, interesting and I'm just following it up with some more, er, research.'

'Interesting? And for that you have to scare the life out of me? What is it?' Buffy's voice took on a tone of annoyance.

'It's a ritual. An ancient, magical ritual that brings back a pure heart from the dead. A hero that is needed by the masses to defend them against the forces of evil,' he finished, reading from the book.

'And thats bad because...?' Buffy prompted.

'Its not *bad* at all,' Giles continued, taking off his glasses and wiping them on his lapel, then returning them to their position on his nose. 'Its just interesting. This is just the kind of ritual I've been looking for for someone thats all.'

'Who?' Buffy asked, wondering just who knew a warrior that needed to be brought back from the land of free and plentiful cookie dough fudge chip ice cream that she thought of as heaven. 

'Um, Angel,' Giles said shortly.

'Angel?' Buffy felt a ripple in her stomach. Even after all this time, the mention of his name still sent shivers down her spine. 'Why does Angel need a spell like that?'

'Well, it was something he mentioned in a conversation a few months ago. About his friend, Doyle, the one who gave the visions to Cordelia, well, they were researching several ways, quietly, so as not to alarm Cordelia, to bring him back. Wesley called me and asked for my help.'

'Oh,' Buffy replied, then fell silent. It was the first time Angel had seemed so passionate about something that didn't include her in any way, and brought back the fact that they led completely separate lives now. 

'Look, I had better go and call Angel. You go on, go home. Thank you for all your help.' Giles continued absentmindedly, not realising the confusion of emotion in Buffy.

She slowly got up, and grabbed her bag. She walked out of the Magic Box and turned in the direction for home. Then stopped for a moment, turned in completely the opposite direction and headed off down the street. In the shadows a face watched her, and then disappeared to follow her secluded walk home.

* * * * *

Willow and Giles parked outside the Hyperion Hotal and gazed up at it. 

'Are you sure this is the right place?' Giles asked.

'Well it says Hyperion Hotel,' Willow answered. 'Angel gave me a card, let me find it, i think its in the glove compartment.' She rooted in the glove compartment, through half eaten caramilk bars until she found the business card. 'Yup, Angel Investigations, Hyperion Hotel, L.A.'

They got out the car and Willow dragged her bag of supplies with her. Giles grabbed the spell book and they walked inside. They were greeted by an impressive looking entrance hall and a very jittery Cordelia who sprung up from behind her desk when she spotted them and rushed over.

'Where have you been? We've been waiting forever! Come on, its almost sunset, we have to get started.'

Willow gently places an arm on Cordelias, knowing the feeling of wanting a loved one to come back more than anything on earth. 'Relax, Cordy, we have an hour or two yet. It has to be carefully timed, it can't be rushed.'

'Okay, I know, I'm sorry, I'm just - '

'We know how important this is to you Cordelia, we'll try everything we can to make it work,' Giles answered.

They walked into Angel's office and greeted him. He beckoned for them to sit down and sat on the edge of his chair, nervously.

'Do you think this will work?' he said.

'It's never been tried before to my knowledge,' said Giles. 'I just found the spell, which has presumably worked in the past but there is no documented evidence.'

'We've studied it as much as we can, Angel,' said Willow, trying to cheer him up. 'We know as much as we ever will, and surely its worth a go?'

'Yeah, of course, I was just wondering what our chances are.' he mumbled, not very cheered by either of their cautions. 'How about we go and have something to eat, I believe Wesley is making tea.'

'I could do with comparing notes with him on a few things,' Giles began, getting up. 'I'll see the two of you down there.'

He wandered out of the office leaving a nervous Angel and a sympathetic Willow.

'And how are you?' she asked.

'Oh fine, you know...' he answered. 'Hows...?'

'Fine.' she said, answering the question she knew he daren't ask but was filling his head.

He smiled a little and looked relieved that the conversation wasn't going to be as difficult as he envisioned.

'Shall we go and join the others? We can talk later.' 

'Yeah,' he said more happily.

Willow got up and gathered her stuff and turned to the closed door of his office where she saw a darts board with three darts, all sticking in a picture of Riley. Giggling she turned to him in surprise, and he returned a rather embarrassed smile that betrayed his true feelings as to 'soldier boy'. She peered closely at the picture and saw dozens of holes pricking the entire thing.

'You really can't stand the guy can you?' she asked.

'No, its not that. Its just he's a...jerk.' Angel said feebly.

She opened the door carefully, glad that Angel was taking his frustations out on a photograph and not the real Riley Finn. Willow considered that even though riley was army trained, he probably wouldn't stand up well in a fight against Angel. mind you, he might inflict an amount of damage before he was beaten.

* * * * *

Although she wasn't due to patrol that night, she decided to walk home via the park and cemetery in order to keep a look out. Another reason for the detour was the fact that she walked to walk, alone in the silent night, and think for a little while. What she had heard about Angel had severley shaken her up emotionally and having a chance to get her feelings sorted out before returning to Riley's arms, and bed, was a bonus.

She was also glad there was a lack of vampiric activity that night. although it was her job she didn't feel much in the mood for slaying anything. She wandered rather than walked, thinking over the same things again and again. She and Angel were over, for good. She never thought the day would come when she had to accept that. She thought there'd be some miracle, some event that would change things, give them another chance. It hadn't come. And now it was over. 

And worse still, it was New Year's Eve and she was alone. She didn't really want to be with Riley. spending New Years with him gave the impression she would spend the rest of the year with him and she was starting to wonder whether that was a good idea or not. At first she didn't notice it; the stalking. She would have far earlier had she been completely compus mentus. She simply carried on walking, gradually becoming aware that something was following her. she let out a mental expression of disgust at being interrupted, but continued to walk as though she didn't see anything, getting into a position where she could turn and ready herself to face it while it couldn't see her. she watched the figure pass her and then lashed out knocking it to the ground.

'Buffy,' it called in an all too familiar voice.

'Riley?' she said in astonishment. 'You jerk! Why were you following me!'

'I saw you leave the magic shop and head in the wrong direction, I was curious.'

'I needed time alone! That means, without the stalker. God, wean yourself off the ritalin, will you?'

'I'm sorry,' he began.

'Yeah, you always are, aren't you? Look, just go will you, I still need to be on my own.'

He walked over to her and tried to lay a hand on her shoulder to hug her but she pushed it away. 

'Alone, Riley.' she commanded. He stopped, looked slightly hurt and saw that she was ready to hit him, and turned to walk away. 

Buffy sighed and turned herself to continue her walk. She heard a yell and turned to see three huge vampires grabbing Riley and pushing him to the floor. So that was where her demon instinct had come from, she just had met Riley first. she rushed in to help and they both managed to get to their feet. back to back to give them the best possible chance of defence. They fought time after time, circling round, the vampires would attack first one then another and another. They didn't seem to tire, and there didn't seem any way to kill them. buffy was in the middle of attacking one when she heard a slight scream. One of the vampires had caught Riley and had him in a head lock. The vampires moved sharply and Buffy heard the snap as his neck broke.

Shocked beyond belief as his body slumped to the floor. she did not at first realise she was now entirely alone against three huge vampires. when she did she ran for her life. Back home, where her mother and sister would be, to keep her safe and comfort her. Riley was dead. Tears fell down her face as she ran, but inside it was like a weight was lifted from her. He was no longer there, could no longer impose upon her solitude. She reached Bevello Drive and slammed the door after her as she ran upstairs. Ignoring her mothers calls she ran to her room and shut the door, collapsing on the bed, she let the tears finally escape.

* * * * *

After a rather hurried dinner which nobody truly ate or enjoyed because of the general atmosphere of nervousness, exuded mostly by Cordelia, Willow and Giles began setting up their supplies in the missle of the entrance hall. There was an intricate pattern of candles and herbs strewn within a circle that to Cordelia's mind looked 'icky, and like the inside of a herbal essences bottle'. Giles portrayed utter concentration, whilst Willow managed to carry out her duties with a smile for those around her and a comfoting word.

Finally, it seemed they were ready. with only a few minutes before sunset, Cordelia, Angel, Willow and Giles positioned themselves in a circle with four red candles one between each of them and a white candle in the middle. The herbs and spices made an intricate pattern, for protection Giles said, on the floor around them. Wesley, spell book in hand to the side of them, began a chant in perfect latin as Giles briefed the others on what would happen.

'We must all follow this chant,' he said, pointing to the cards in front of them, 'in exact synchronisation ten times, upon which the sun will have set, a vortex will open and Doyle should hopefully return through it.'

They all looked at each other nervously, none of them wanting to do anything wrong and wreck the only chance in their lifetimes of bringing Doyle back. Wesley continued his chanting whilst sprinkling more herbs and spices around the circle to continue the protection against evil forces intent on sabotage. On Giles signal the others began the chant, written a millennia ago and hopefully translated accurately.

_'Spirit of the fire  
I call upon you  
Heed my plea  
Bring forth old blood  
To aid protection of the new.'_

After the tenth time of the chant a vortex did open above them. They struggled to keep their position by the fierce wind that had blown up. An object dropped from the vortex just as a flash of light followed it and knocked the four of them back. They all struggled up immediately to find a very confused Doyle, still in the clothes he was in the night he died.

Cordelia flung herself at him and kissed him passionately.

'Princess,' he grinned when he pulled himself away. 'I didn't know you missed me so much.'

'I didn't,' she replied sweetly. 'That was for giving me those stupid visions, you can have them back.'

'I already got them back, princess, the minute I came through the vortex,' he leaned over and pulled her close again kissing her gently. 'But don't let that stop you.'

She smiled back at him. 'I don't think it will.'

The others patiently waited for them to have some 'alone time' before butting in to see how he was, and to explain if he knew what was going on.

'Oh I knew alright,' he said with a grin. 'And it was very decent of ya to try this. I'm grateful. and so, as it turns out are the PTB's. They've sent you all a little reward through the vortex for risking your lives in the pursuit of this little ritual. Mr Giles, Wesley, I think you can probably take off your glasses now.' 

Giles and Wesley did as he said and exclaimed over the fact their vision seemed to have been restored to near perfect.

'And you, Willow, I think you'll find your magical prowess has greatly increased.'

'What about me?' Cordelia interrupted.

'Oh you got something absolutely fabulous princess, you got me!'

Cordelia smiled and hugged him. He turned to Angel and smiled.

'And you got something you've always wanted. Shansu.'

Angel looked at him in disbelief, slowly lowering a hand to his chest where he found the thump, thump of a beating heart.

'But this is impossible, I'm useless as a mortal, I have no strnegth.'

'Yes, you do. you're not totally off the hook yet, my friend. the PTB's have restored your mortality, but not cleared your debt. you still have to fight the good fight. but from now on you can have a little fun too.' Doyle finished with a wink as he again kissed a startled Cordelia.

As the rest of the party broke out champagne and toasted to Doyle's new found health and long life, Angel separated himself from the rest and walked up to the roof. It was dark now and the stars were visible over the glare of L.A's many neon signs. It was odd that he should start off his third go at mortality in the dark, but even stranger to think he could wake up tomorrow and walk down to the store to buy coffee himself. It was a wonderful start to the New Year, but he had to fight hard to resist the urge to return to the one thing that would truly appreciate his change...Buffy.

* * * * *

Spike hummed to radio as he tidied up the crypt. He didn't know exactly why he was doing it, but all he knew was that he wanted it to be tidy when Willow arrived. It was important that this evening was good, that he started the New Year off in a good way. He wouldn't have admitted his faith in the old superstitions that a year started with bad luck will mean a year full of bad luck. and that was the last thing he needed.

'Hmmm, hmmm, There was a time when I'd trust you alone. I'd call you up girl, but you took my phone. You borrow my stuff every time I turn my back. I can't believe I went out with a kleptomaniac! We're breaking up!'

Willow smiled to herself as she watched Spike singing and tidying up. she supposed on the face of things it was a good thing. When he saw her he stopped dead and dropped everything he was dusting, desparately trying to regain some of his 'cool'.

'What are you singing?' she asked, trying to supress a smile.

'Oh, its nothing its a 2gether song 'The Hardest Part of Breakin Up...Is Getting Back Your Stuff.' Reminds me of Drusilla.'

'Why, what did she take?' Willow asked, her brow creasing as she struggled to hold back her laughter.

'Oh, its personal, I don't want to discuss it.' he said, blushing like a beacon. Odd for someone that doesn't have circulation, Willow noted.

'Well, what do you want to do?' she asked.

'Oh, I've got it all planned. Crispie things for you, blood for me, a marathon of Passions and watching the ball drop.'

Willow rolled her eyes at the mention of the soap Spike was addicted to. Still, she reasoned, if it makes him less suicidal, its worth it, and at least I won't be alone to see in the New Year. 

They both sat on the stone slab, Spike on his leather duster, Willow on some cushions he had acquired goodness knows how to make it more comfortable for her. Spike put on the TV and they sat side by side with blood and tea and pringles watching a quadruple bill of Passions. Willow sighed, it was going to be a long night.

* * * * *

Buffy slipped out of her window as she had done when her slayer identity was still a secret. She wandered aimlessly through the streets for a while, not even able to think in what direction was heading. She found herself, inevitably as it so often seemed, at the cemetery. Lights were on in the chapel of rest, and she realised that Riley's body must have already been discovered and retrieved. She sneaked over and opened a door with a little more than normal force. Avoiding the mortician, she pulled open one of the doors in the mortuary to look at the tag. FINN, RILEY. That was it. she hesitated for a moment, uncertain as to if she wanted to see what was beneath the pure white sheet. She slowly dragged out the tray and pulled the sheet over the head. He looked...peaceful. It seemed like a cliche, but it was certainly true. the expression on his face reminded her of the first time they met. slightly dopey, and she smiled at the memory. Happier times for him, and for her as well, although they had hardly seemed happy at the time. 

She pulled a white rose out of her bag that she had taken from a garden on the walk over and laid it on his chest. It seemed fitting, and she felt she had finally made her peace with him, and laid the ghosts of the Initiative to rest. She put the sheet back carefully, and pushed the tray back into the cold. She closed the door and when she left the mortuary felt the need to be on her own. She wouldn't be at home, her mother and sister fussing over her. She headed back to her dorm, where she knew no one would be on New Year's Eve. Sure enough, the dorm was quiet, and she simply sat on the side of her bed, just relishing the fact she was alone. Outside the door, a figure stood, one that had followed her from the mortuary, and hesitated as to whether to make itself known.

A knock on the door awakened Buffy from her trance. She was a little surprised to be disturbed, but thought it was probably a janitor wondering who was here and what their intent was. At her assent to come in, the door opened slowly and her eyes widened as she saw the one person she least expected.

'Hi,' Angel said shyly. 'Is it okay for me to come in?'

'Angel,' Buffy whispered. 'What are you doing here?'

'Your mother phoned Willow, she told us what happened to...Riley. I'm sorry Buffy, truly I am, he didn't deserve what happened to him.'

'Do you really believe that?' she smiled softly.

'Yes, well, yes, of course I do,' he stuttered.

He walked over and sat beside her on the bed, kissing her forehead slightly before he did. She closed her eyes and wanted the feeling to linger forever. She held his hand against her face and moved her lips to his. He kissed her gently then pulled away.

'Buffy,' he warned.

'Shhh. Its okay,' she spoke more firmly, finally understanding her feelings. 'I'm not betraying Riley, its just that I feel like I'm following a destiny that had been written for me. A destiny that decided Riley's time had come, that our time was over, but maybe we misinterpreted that. I miss you.'

He kissed her again, then brought out a red rose that he had hidden behind his back. He offered it to her, and she took it smiling.

'Do you think we're rushing this,' she asked with a smile.

An odd look crossed his face. 'Angel,' she asked. 'What's wrong.'

'Nothing. Its just, you said that once before, in almost the same circumstances.'

He began an explanation of the day they had together when they had fought the Mohra demon and finished by placing a hand to his chest where she felt a gentle thump, thump that she hadn't noticed before, it had just seemed normal.

'You're! Oh my God, but won't the same thing happen? Won't you be weak again?'

'No. The Powers that Be fixed everything. Its going to be alright. We can be together, fight together. It won't ever go away again.'

She hugged him tightly. 'I love you.'

'I love you too. always.'

As they lay together in her bed later that night, she heard the thump, thump of a heartbeat that was new to her, but that she already understood. For the first time in her life, she knew that everything would be alright.

* * * * *

   [1]: http://ygts.cjb.net



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